[dbaldino]

Does anyone have any suggestions for my situation? I have been trying to taper off clonazepam for months & can’t seem to master it. I do not take it every night and I take a low dose (1/2-1/4 mg). When I stop. I sleep @ 4 hrs @ then I do not go back to sleep. I feel like this is wreaking havoc on my well being. To complicate it more I went to California for thanksgiving (3 hr earlier time zone). I had to take it every night to get any sleep. I know my doc will cut me
off soon. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[hiker]

Hi dbaldino, I wish I had an easy solution. All I can do is relay my own experiences with sleep meds. Take away anything you find useful.

Over the years I probably went through 20 different sleep meds. Some worked for a while–a few months, but most of the time it was a matter of weeks or even days. And also times when nothing worked. Pharmacists know more about the effect of meds than the prescribing docs, and they have told me that it is natural to build up a tolerance, sometimes fairly soon, unfortunately. There simply is no pill which you can count on to sleep well on a consistent basis.

Re the specifics of clonazepam’s half-life and a safe tapering schedule, I would consult a pharmacist.

I understand desperation for sleep, believe me. But check out Martin’s emails and comments on this forum. He wrote recently about confronting anxiety, that it is part of our makeup, and trying to get rid of it is like getting rid of your heartbeat. I won’t try to elaborate further because I don’t want to mischaracterize his comments, but do check it out.

Example: actually, I did not sleep well myself last night. And just now a thought went through my head about my to-do list today, how am I going to do it all, what if I don’t sleep well tonight? And I am trying to approach all this as follows:

Instead of …..”what if I don’t sleep well tonight, or the next night, I can’t handle this anymore” and instead of trying to force these thoughts out of my head, I am going with ….”I’m having the thought that maybe I won’t sleep well tonight, or the next night, and that I can’t handle this anymore.” That is, prefacing whatever thought barreling through my head with “I’m having the thought that….” And I know very well this sounds simplistic and it is easy to slip into cynicism and darkness, especially when you are hammered from insomnia. But I hope you can slow down and give it a try.

Take care, you are not alone.

[dbaldino]

Thank you so much for your honest feedback. This is hugely helpful. I have comfort in knowing that I am not alone in this. I will do my best at autocorrecting these thoughts. I will give your advice a try.

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